If you were hoping to watch the NCAA Tournament Final Four on CBS today then you might be confused at the sight of a True Crime: 48 Hours marathon airing on the network instead.
A slew of basketball fans hoping to sit down and turn on the Illinois-UConn and Michigan-Arizona games might have been confused that the games weren't on CBS and are instead being shown on TBS and TNT. While that may be due to a contractual agreement between CBS and Turner, it still came as a shock to a good number of basketball fans.
There's no shortage of people complaining about the game not being on CBS right now, with some even going so far as to call it a sign of "American decline."
"Why is the final four on TBS and Tru TV? I haven’t watched for several years and thought it was still on CBS," one user remarked.
"The Men’s Final Four games not being on CBS feels so wrong," wrote another.
"The Final Four airing on TBS/truTV/HBO Max as opposed to CBS is a neat microcosm of the American decline," a third wrote.
"What is with college sports championships being stuck behind paywalled networks. I could watch the rest of the tournament on CBS but final four nope!"
"You have to actually seek out the Final Four if you want to watch it. In the good old days, even non sports fans would watch. How many non sports fans are just going to stumble on TBS on a random Saturday? Streaming means no one will just stumble on a game."
New to this?
Unfortunately for fans who are deeply confused, this isn't some new thing. Just about every complaint about the switch from CBS has pointed out that this has been a thing for many years now.
"They’ve been alternating the Final Four between CBS/TBS for a decade now, this is old news," one user remarked.
"Since CBS and Turner signed the deal years ago it was agreed: CBS would air Final Four on ODD years Turner gets the EVEN years 2027 Final Four will be on CBS. KCBS-2 LA for me," wrote another.
"It's all the same company, and allows them to do alternate casts, and capture more people's attention as they are channel surfing. Airing the games on 4 channels instead of 1 is actually smart."
Even so, an event as huge as the Final Four seems like it should always be on CBS. Whether the networks want to accept it or not, the highest ratings potential is always going to be on the traditional TV networks.
